What did IT say?

Writing assignment instructions are at the end of this document

Case:

Each morning, Nora Johnson opened her work email inbox, dreading what she might find. Today was no different; despite that she had checked the same email account an hour and a half ago from her phone as she took the bus into work, she now had 27 new emails. "Just great," she muttered to herself. "How in the heck do they expect me to get any work done if I have to answer all these emails?"

Following her usual procedure, Nora scanned the list of sendees, looking for the ones who would be the most important. Those she flagged; others she deleted, unopened. Then she set to work answering the flagged messages.

The third one was from her boss. It read, "Nora, please see the email from IT and help Jack explain it. I see trouble coming." Email from IT? Not flagged. Quickly she went into her deleted file-- usually where the generic emails wound up-and pulled it up. Jack, the head of IT, was notorious for being verbose but vague. This message was no different:

Email dated May 1

On May 24, consultants from Sharepoint will be assisting the IT staff with changes to our Sharepoint infrastructure. We don't have the exact timing on this as of yet; we'll forward that to you when it's set. During the work period, Sharepoint will be unavailable from both the Sharepoint client software and through the company portal web site.

The changes that are being made will bring Sharepoint into the single set of credentials infrastructure. This will affect users of both the Sharepoint client software as well as those who log in via the my.pfeiffer.edu portal site. All employees will be affected by this change.

Once the work is complete, access to Sharepoint will restored. At that time, all staff will log into the Sharepoint client or the company portal using their Active Directory (AD) credentials. Your old Sharepoint login will no longer work. If you do not know your AD credentials, please contact the Help Desk at 800-555-1122.

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you to sign up for the Self-Service Password Reset service. This service will allow you to reset a forgotten password or unlock your account if it's locked. Being registered to use this system will become increasingly important. I'm attaching the how-to document for your reference. We have completed changes that allow you to set up and access this system from outside the company network in order to make it more convenient for you to use.

Nora sighed, knowing that what her boss meant was that many employees would have done just what Nora did: deleted the message unopened. However, her boss also knew from reading the email that even had they read it, they may not have known what Jack was talking about. "Help Jack explain it" meant for her to let Jack know that she would be rewriting his email in a clear, concrete manner and sending it out again. How, she wondered, should she explain this to Jack? If she chose to email him, rather than speak to him, what exactly should she say? Moreover, how should she revise his email to make it clear?

copyright 2013 Susan L Luck, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

Writing Assignment:

You must write two emails. The first (Email #1) will be to the author of the email in the case, Jack. You must explain to him that, at your supervisor's request, you are rewriting his email and resending the revised version to the company employees.

The second email (Email #2) you will write is a clear, concise revision of the email included in the case.

For both emails, begin with an effective subject line, follow with an opening salutation, the body of the email, and end with a professional signature line (your own name and school email information is fine). You do not have to include a formatted email heading information (TO, FROM, etc.). For example:

Email #1
SUBJECT LINE:
Dear Jack,

Please include both emails in the same Word document.